The Sketching Detective and Murder in the Highlands

by Jack C. McCormac

The Sketching Detective and Murder in the Highlands is one of those books that will make you travel to places you’ve never been to before. By using Scotland as the setting of the story, it gave its readers the necessary push to tap on the desire to explore the world. As it is a beautifully written piece, with the plot and its twists being put in the appropriate timing of the story, admittedly, there are moments when the writing was a bit too verbose that the climax of the story was unnecessarily being held out for too long. The story fillers, such as those that dwelled on golf, could have been shortened so as to ensure that the readers’ attention would not be too halted or too divided until the end.

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The Sketching Detective and Murder in the Highlands

Jack, an assistant professor in a university, finds out that he has had sufficient number of years to apply for a sabbatical. He was granted the same and from there, takes off to Scotland with his wife, Fiona.

While in Scotland, they devoured in the aesthetics of the great highlands and its other breath-taking structures. In the course of their visit, they find themselves helping one of their good friends, Angus, whose fiancé has been tangled up in charges of murder and robbery. A few weeks before their visit, Lorna was arrested by the police as she was being accused of murdering Mr. Menzie and robbing yellow diamonds from him. She has since then been out on bail, but they deemed it necessary to have her clear her name and find out who the real culprit is.

Lorna assisted in the couple’s investigation, writing down a list of names whom she thinks would have been trusted by the victim of his yellow diamonds, with emphasis on those individuals who were more likely to be greedy about money and dishonest about obtaining them. From that list, focus was highlighted on Dr. Fergus McAlpine, because aside from the fact that he once dated Lorna, he also called her and asked for a meeting with her on the day Lorna found the dead body of Mr. Menzie. Later, it would be found out that Dr. McAlpine has disappeared and had died in a way reminiscent of the earlier death of Menzie.

In the development of their investigation, Jack and Fiona would get threats from the killer, who was apparently still on the hunt for the yellow diamonds. In one encounter, the killer abducted Fiona and forced her to give him details about the diamonds; little did he know, this encounter and everything the killer said would give the smart and clever Fiona more clues to reveal his identity and find the missing diamonds.

From then on, the couple, with the help of Lorna and Angus, set up a trap in order to finally catch the culprit --- Donald McDaniel.